Helen Broughton on the issue of opening family courts to public scrutiny.
FAMILY courts are to be open up to the media in response to controversy over their decisions and the way they operate.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, plans to announce changes next month to create more transparency in the system.
Newspapers, Families Needs Fathers and other partisan groups are very keen on this. They see it as protecting families from unfair and unjustified state intervention or, in private law to the unfairness of alleged prejudicial judges in denying one party their due rights.
I have been doing children work in court for more than 20 years. I can think of very few cases where the right result for the children has not been achieved. I have no problem with inviting the public and press into the hearings but I am not sure if it will have the desired effect of reassuring the public.
It will show that under the new Public Law Outline for case managing care cases, a child can be taken from a parent after as few as four hearings, if the evidence supports it. But many parents are struggling with their children because of scant resources or experience; they need help, not court proceedings.
Social services are against opening the court because it will show the stark reality of insufficient resources, over zealous management and a lack of actual help being given to parents. It will show social workers having huge case loads with no time to do any social work.
Equally, it will reveal huge delays with the Children and Family court social workers who advice the judges on what they consider to be in the best interests of children.
In private law, the problem is even greater with delays of up to six months for the provision of reports.
Added to these issues the court administration is over-stretched with a lack of staff and resources and family solicitors are under paid. Under the new system for child care work, an experienced solicitor gets a fixed price as low as £32.45 per hour.
I have no problem with the media being admitted to the court. They will see a creaking justice system with demoralised professional people, who try to make their best efforts despite the chronic lack of funding.
Helen Broughton is managing partner of Morecrofts